Orchard planning

Plan a new orchard before you dig

Trees n Bees helps small growers plan a new orchard in three steps: the land, what goes in, and a check. It works out the spacing and the grid, lays each variety out row by row, says whether each variety has a pollination partner, and gives you the list of trees to order. The plan becomes the orchard you record against.

Orchard plan check step: 5 rows of 20 trees, 3 m apart in the row and rows 5.5 m apart, a dot picture of 40 Cripps Pink apples, 30 Gala apples and 20 Packham's Triumph pears, planting in winter 2027 and the trees to order — The check step: the grid, the planting stages and the trees to order.

The land

Enter the length and width of the ground, how big the trees should grow and how you get between the rows: on foot, a ride-on mower, a quad or buggy, or a small tractor. Trees n Bees works out the spacing between trees and between rows, and the grid of rows and trees that fits.

Four tree sizes, from small trees picked from the ground on a dwarfing rootstock to full-size trees.
Rows spaced for your machine between grown trees, not young ones.
Every number can be changed, or type the rows and trees per row if you already know them.

What goes in

Add a line for each crop and variety, with a rootstock, how many trees and the winter you'll plant them, or mark them as already in the ground. Each crop is planted together, row by row, and each line becomes a block.

Crop, variety and rootstock names are suggested as you type, and a short line under each variety says whether it needs a partner, how much chill it needs, and when it flowers and is picked.

Pollination partners

For each variety that needs a partner, the check step says whether the plan has one, with the known partners to plant if it doesn't. Triploids need two partners; kiwifruit and pistachio need a male; avocados look for the other flower type; Japanese and European plums don't count for each other, nor do early and late flowering varieties. Self-fertile varieties need nothing.

Once the orchard is planted, each block and tree keeps showing whether its partners are in the same orchard, only in another orchard on the property, or missing.

Check the plan

A dot picture of the orchard, each variety in its own colour.
The planting stages, winter by winter.
The trees to order, by winter, as a table and a CSV to send to your nursery.
A plain list of what the plan does not check: your climate, frost and heat, the shape and slope of the ground, your soil, and flowering times in your district.

From plan to planted

Creating the orchard makes a block for each line, with its trees in place. Trees not in the ground yet are planned: dashed on the orchard grid and listed as the trees still to plant, with an order list to download. When they go in, mark a block's planned trees as planted on the date.

From there it's an ordinary orchard: record the work, bloom dates and harvests against each tree. More on orchard records →

Who it suits

Growers adding a new block or a new orchard, and anyone turning a paddock into fruit trees, who want the spacing, the varieties and the order list worked out together before the trees arrive. It is a starting point to talk over with your nursery, not a replacement for local advice.

Pollination in the orchard plan: Cripps Pink and Gala pollinate each other, and Packham's Triumph pear has no partner in the orchard, with Williams named as a known partner — Pollination partners checked before you order, with what the plan does not check.

Planning an orchard on a phone: lines for Cripps Pink and Gala apples on M26 rootstock, each with a note that it needs a pollination partner, its chill and when it flowers and is picked — What goes in: each variety with what it needs.

Questions? See common questions, or the home page for everything Trees n Bees does.